Freedom: the absence of subjection to foreign domination or tyrannical government.

Growing up in the United States of America I have always learned about the single most momentous aspect that makes us extraordinary, Freedom. Ever since the establishment of our country so many brave men and women have fought and died to earn and protect our freedom because it is the one thing that truly makes us American. And now we are face-to-face with yet another war to protect our freedom under the guise of COVID-19.

COVID-19 has put a halt to our nation and our daily lives. The virus originally was hypothesized to pose an overwhelming health crisis that could kill millions of Americans. But as we progress further into the pandemic, the facts and science clearly illustrate that virtually only the extremely elderly with serious preexisting conditions were at risk. This shows how much we have overblown the panic of the virus and we are starting to see the threat for what it truly is: The death of our most vital commodity; The death of the education of our new generation; The death of our Freedom. 

We are seeing colleges and Universities nationwide announcing in-class teaching for the Fall of 2020, yet SDSU and all other CSU schools are forcing the switch to a fully online classroom environment. The CSU student body is losing the quality education and personal in-class experience that we have earned through our life’s work. Through online schooling we are losing the ability to communicate face-to-face with our peers and our Professors, an ability in which we pride our education on. Losing this will be detrimental to our ability to perform in a real world environment. By making this decision to move online we are now sitting alone in our homes, muted by professors in the lectures that we so desperately need to be active and engaged in. 

We, as students, have never been asked to fight and protect our freedom, but now we must unite to change this verdict of online schooling in Fall of 2020. Together we must convince Timothy White, the CSU Chancellor, to eliminate his previous proclamation and return our in-person education. 

We have spent countless hours in the classroom hearing about the importance of our education, the impact that we can have on the world, and the vitality of maintaining our democratic right to be recognized in the decision making that determines our fate. Unfortunately, our fate has been taken out of our hands without offering the opportunity for the student body to share our opinions and needs on this life changing decision to move CSU to online education. 

We have already been cheated in the Spring semester of 2020 by switching to online classes and we have gotten to experience just how inefficient and minimal the education in the Fall of 2020 will be if the decision of online teaching stays in place. What we experienced in the Spring was the inability of Professors to properly convey new information online which, when compared to the classroom was not nearly as effective and on top of this we lost the human interaction between peers and Professors that will prepare us for the real world. Now we are supposed to idly stand by and allow the Chancellor of California State Universities, Timothy White, a man who 99% of students have never even heard of, to rob us of our next year of a true education that WE pay for. He has supposedly acted in the “best interest” of our schools without considering the lasting effect that it will have upon the 481,929 students currently enrolled in the CSU system. And to add insult to injury, Timothy White has asked us to remain paying the same price, both in-state and out-of-state, for a vastly inferior education. WE are the only ones who will fight for our future, and the time has come to band together and protest this tyrannical ruling of online school for the Fall semester of 2020. 

I look around and see people fighting for what they believe in, I see people being launched into space, I see the American Dream coming to fruition for so many others, and now we are being told to put our dreams on hold. The last time I checked, no one describes the American Dream as waiting until someone allows you to make your dreams come true.  So, this is a call to all CSU students to take action and fight for the schooling that we have worked our entire lives to earn. Fight for our Education. Fight for our Future. Fight for our Freedom!